"Bacteria inimical to plant growth spread around the world, causing a blight, Jack Flint is invited to become director of operations at Nordernholt's survivalist colony in England's Clyde Valley"-- Provided by publisher
Matthew Battles Books
Matthew Battles is a literary scholar whose work is associated with Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. His writing explores the intersection of culture and technology, offering insightful perspectives on how digital advancements shape our world. Battles delves into complex ideas with a thoughtful and analytical approach, making his contributions valuable to contemporary discourse. His research and writing encourage readers to critically engage with the evolving landscape of information and communication.
Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved, but shaped, inspired and obliterated knowledge. Matthew Battles takes us on a fascinating journey from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library. The library has been a battleground of competing notions of what books mean to us, from the clay-tablet collections of ancient Mesopotamia to the legendary libraries of Alexandria, from the burned scrolls of the Qing Dynasty to the book-pyres of the Hitler Youth, from the Dewey Decimal System to the Internet. Battles explores how the library has served two contradictory impulses: to exalt canons of literature, to secure and celebrate the best writing; and the desire to contain all forms of human knowledge - to keep all the books. In its custody of books and the words they contain, the library has confronted and tamed technology, the forces of change and the power of princes time and again.